Dragon Age 2 - DRM Explained - EA account needed

Tragos · February 1, 2011

Ubisoft's DRM lasted for like 3 weeks until a Russian guy pwnd it , of course this gave me enough time to enjoy my brother's screams everytime he lost hours of gameplay because connection went down , LOL , this Russian guy ruined for me.

This looks a small step forward for EA , of course i am not going to buy/play the game but this DRM looks better than their previous ones.

Maylander · February 1, 2011

Sounds slightly better than a few of the options we've seen lately, but it doesn't stick out enough to go either "YEAH!" or "BOOOH!".

booboo · February 1, 2011

There's very little info about this 'phoning in"…is it every few hours of game play (possibly streched over several days)? Or every few days of real time (so you could, in theory, finish the game without ever having 'phoned in')? At some point it becomes invasive. So, of course, they're being deliberately vague.

Personally this has shifted DA2 to an "unlikely buy" from a "probable buy". As a consumer I find it unacceptable that a product I *buy* (not rent for a small amount) can only be used if I have an internet connection which is used - not just *once*, for activation, but over, and over, and over again. What's sad is that the gaming population just rolls over and take this crap - thus encouraging "them". Ubi is a point in case - tons of people bought AC2, despite its unreasonable 'always online' requirement. That's all they needed to believes that it's an Ok way to package their products. Sure, it wasn't cracked immediately - but that scheme is now understood by pirates and any new games that use it wil be quickly cracked. I have skipped a numbe rof games I was keen on because of DRM requirements - looks like the number is set to grow since most companies are now adopting such tactics.

blatantninja · February 1, 2011

azarhal said:
The "pre" sales isn't the problem, trying to play a game when the servers aren't ready is. It happened with DA:O (my EA shipped copy arrived 2 days early). I see this more as a preemptive measure caused by a strict schedule from the IT department, then stopping "pre" anything or pirates.

Buy it is single player game. Outside of the this check to make sure the date has passed, what is the point of the servers?

Acleacius · February 1, 2011

Pass, I'll gladly wait a month, 6 months maybe a year to buy. Denying these publishers their first week, first month totals has a HUGE impact.

I buy disks and don't support draconian drm schemes. No it's not the worst ever, but of course that's not the point. The reason publishers keep back pedaling slowly over the last ten years, is becasue we fight back against shitty console game design and draconian drm.

There really aren't anymore developers for them to buy and ea knows it can't survive on their bullshit sports franchises anymore. They can't keep covering up their huge corporate losses. I highly doubt any sane developer would risk doing a deal with riccitiello after what he did to Bioware.

Tragos · February 1, 2011

booboo said:
There's very little info about this 'phoning in"…is it every few hours of game play (possibly streched over several days)? Or every few days of real time (so you could, in theory, finish the game without ever having 'phoned in')? At some point it becomes invasive. So, of course, they're being deliberately vague.

Personally this has shifted DA2 to an "unlikely buy" from a "probable buy". As a consumer I find it unacceptable that a product I *buy* (not rent for a small amount) can only be used if I have an internet connection which is used - not just *once*, for activation, but over, and over, and over again. What's sad is that the gaming population just rolls over and take this crap - thus encouraging "them". Ubi is a point in case - tons of people bought AC2, despite its unreasonable 'always online' requirement. That's all they needed to believes that it's an Ok way to package their products. Sure, it wasn't cracked immediately - but that scheme is now understood by pirates and any new games that use it wil be quickly cracked. I have skipped a numbe rof games I was keen on because of DRM requirements - looks like the number is set to grow since most companies are now adopting such tactics.

Buy the game & use a crack

This way you support developers and piss on publishers , which is cool and legit.

azarhal · February 1, 2011

blatantninja said:
Buy it is single player game. Outside of the this check to make sure the date has passed, what is the point of the servers?

To register the game and download the pre-order bonus and the other DLCs through BioWare Social website.

blackcanopus · February 1, 2011

Tragos said:
Buy the game & use a crack

This way you support developers and piss on publishers , which is cool and legit.

I'm not sure how this is considered as pissing on the publisher, since the money goes directly into their pocket. If you buy the game and use a crack, you simply reduce the load on their servers.
No no no, I prefer using the original exe and login and logout every now and then, this way I will claim a percentage of the servers' load that's rightfully mine.

JK

Tragos · February 1, 2011

blackcanopus said:
I'm not sure how this is considered as pissing on the publisher, since the money goes directly into their pocket. If you buy the game and use a crack, you simply reduce the load on their servers.
No no no, I prefer using the original exe and login and logout every now and then, this way I will claim a percentage of the servers' load that's rightfully mine.

JK

Good point but still logging on their servers is quite stupid , specially when it is mandatory if you wanna play the game

Twotricks · February 1, 2011

KapitanUnterhosen said:
Well they consider the first few weeks to be crucial to a games' sales.

The assassin's creed 2 DRM managed to stay uncracked for a month, that was a success. It wasn't enough to make a dent in sales as it was a surprise, but if it became the norm for pirates to have to choose between paying for a game and playing it upon release or pirating it a month or more later… distributors stand to make significantly more money.

I assume that the check that's done after X days can't simply be indefinitely postponed by changing your computer's clocks&dates.

Well yes.

Delaying 0day version is a great way to screw pirates over.

Its tempting when you have to decide between purchasing game that just launched without demo , or pirated copy ( or should i call it extended demo

)

So I agree with this action.

But the truth is that you actually need to connect to internet every two weeks, and not just one time:

Non-Steam versions (digital or retail disc) DRM policies are as follows:

* No disc check, you do not need the disc in drive to play.
* No limit on the total number of PCs you can install and play the game on.
* There is a limit to the number of unique/different PCs that can start/play the game within a time window [5 PCs in 24hrs].
* Each install requires logging in to your EA account to verify game ownership and if you are a member of these forums, you have an EA account.
* You can play offline but the game will require a login check after a select period of days.

TheMadGamer · February 1, 2011

If I ever buy a game with this DRM scheme, I just know that the one day I will have time to play the game will be the one day where my internet is not working AND the one day that the game will need to 'phone home' to check the legitamacy of my game and I won't be able to play.

That said, I still might like this DRM scheme better than disc based DRM as over the years disc based DRM has been such a pain in the ass.

Internet connectivity is my biggest concern. Second, gaming businesses don't last all that long... I have a huge collection of PC games in my garage dating back to the early 80s and the vast majority of those developers are long gone. Lastly, while developers/publishers make promises that they will unwind their DRM in the event they go away there is no garauntee that instead I could end up with a bunch of useless games because that might not end up happening.

DoctorNarrative · February 1, 2011

Tragos said:
Ubisoft's DRM lasted for like 3 weeks until a Russian guy pwnd it , of course this gave me enough time to enjoy my brother's screams everytime he lost hours of gameplay because connection went down , LOL , this Russian guy ruined for me.

Since Assassin's Creed 2 saved every time you did anything in the game world I doubt he lost "hours of progress."

Not defending that DRM at all, but I don't think making stuff up helps the anti-DRM cause.

Alrik Fassbauer · February 1, 2011

Did that Russian guy also pwn the DRM of The Settlers 7 ? Because it was the same (as far as I know) like Assassin's Greed, but The Settlers isn't as much popular among gamers like the Assassin is ...

Nerevarine · February 1, 2011

Alrik Fassbauer said:
Did that Russian guy also pwn the DRM of The Settlers 7 ? Because it was the same (as far as I know) like Assassin's Greed, but The Settlers isn't as much popular among gamers like the Assassin is …

I've always enjoyed The Settlers games, but I barely gave The Settlers 7 a second glance when I heard about the "persistent online DRM." Companies are so worried about losing sales to pirates that they end up losing sales from legitimate buyers like me who would normally be interested in games like The Settlers. Ironic, isn't it?

Couchpotato · February 1, 2011

Alrik Fassbauer said:
Did that Russian guy also pwn the DRM of The Settlers 7 ? Because it was the same (as far as I know) like Assassin's Greed, but The Settlers isn't as much popular among gamers like the Assassin is …

If i remember it was razor1911 who cracked settlers 7 but I don't really care since the game was a major setback for the series.

Alrik Fassbauer · February 1, 2011

I must admit tht I still don't have The Settlers 7.
My last Settlers game was the Settlers 2 Remake, and I liked it, but at one point I began to hate the Settlers 5 - I was then playing Spellforce partly parallel to it - and at one point I didn't see any diference anymore between both games ...

I liked the Settlers 6 demo much better, but never bought the game, either ...

Curremntly, I'm waiting for a Settlers game in the true sense of the earliest game ... Ones with a still working "Wusel-Factor" ...

Xian · February 2, 2011

I don't care for "phone home" DRM - I would rather go back to looking up the word on page 17, paragraph 3, word 7 than some of these new DRM schemes that are being hatched.

EA doesn't have the best track record on maintaining server availability. They retire their servers after a couple years for their sports titles, essentially forcing you into buying the newest season if you want to play online. Who is to say that they will not do the same with the DA2 DRM server? If I want to do some retro-gaming 20 years from now will DA2 still be able to contact them?

I don't trust companies that say they will issue a DRM removal patch if something ever happens such as going out of business. If they are bankrupt, who is going to pay the programmers to make such a patch? Will the lawyers even allow such a thing to happen in that case, essentially giving away the keys to their assets? They don't even have to go out of business. Microsoft's Plays for Sure music no longer does. They shut down the DRM servers, the same with Walmart's failed digital music. If two of the largest companies in the world can just turn their back on their customers, I don't hold high hopes for others.

Mana Garmr · February 2, 2011

Hmmm, I was annoyed enough that I had to make an EA account at all when I was installing the first game to do the verification. Needing to log into the damn thing repeatedly to play a single player game definitely pushes this down to the "buy at ~€10" mark.

zadokAllen · February 2, 2011

I do regard corp execs as a bunch of greedy gits, but they`re not necessarily stupid. As such they are no doubt aware of DRM`s total uselessness in stopping people pirating their games.

This leads to question "why bother then?". Well, perhaps DRM is a sort of a Registration Card thingy that used to come in game boxes and all of 15 [citation needed] people ever sent one back. Once you register you`re on a sort of electronic leash here and are more prone to advertising/offers/being loyal to franchises etc.

Or maybe they`re greedy AND stupid.

Tragos · February 2, 2011

DoctorNarrative said:
Since Assassin's Creed 2 saved every time you did anything in the game world I doubt he lost "hours of progress."

Not defending that DRM at all, but I don't think making stuff up helps the anti-DRM cause.

My bro is playing this sub-marine thing , silent hunter or silent service and yes he did lost hours of gameplay several times before the crack was out

Dragon Age 2 - DRM Explained - EA account needed

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